1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computing systems and, more particularly, to methods and systems for verifying server-storage device connectivity in a storage area network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that a server and one or more storage devices need to be connected before the server and the storage device(s) are able to communicate with one another. The most common solution for ensuring that a server and a storage device are connected is for a user to verify the connectivity between the server and the storage device. This solution is usually accomplished manually. That is, the user examines the actual storage area network (SAN) configuration to ensure that the server is indeed connected to the storage device. While manually ensuring that the server and the storage device is an effective way of ensuring physical connectivity, manual inspection of the SAN configuration is time consuming and does not ensure that the server is capable of storing data on the storage device. For example, many SAN configurations include a zoning configuration that prohibits some devices and/or ports from accessing other devices and/or ports in the SAN configuration. That is, a server may be physically connected to a storage device; however, the zoning configuration of the particular SAN configuration may prohibit the server from actually accessing the storage device. As such, a manual inspection of the SAN configuration may verify that the server and the storage device are connected, but cannot verify that the server is actually capable of storing data on the storage device. Therefore, improvements to current SAN configurations are needed.